Thursday, August 24, 2017

After two months of exile, Margarita López has returned home. Her home, in Ahuihuiyuco, municipality of Chilapa, Guerrero, looks "more unkempt," she says. Her husband died, the dogs were eaten, and two horses disappeared. "That's what we were going to eat, now that we owe money," she says, feeding the few chickens that survive him.

Margarita's family left their home on June 9, when criminals warned the inhabitants that they would kill any settlers in this region if they stayed on. The threats rained down on them in papers that they threw in the plaza in front of the church, the Zocolo of Ahuihuiyuco. Then, psychosis spread through social networks and on June 10 Ahuihuiyuco and Tepozcuautla were deserted. More than 580 families moved.

"Living outside is very expensive, that's why we returned," says Margarita. "I left with my two daughters-in-law, one of my grandchildren and all my children, we left everything, the little we have."

"First some boys were dead, they left them here at night and then all the people started to leave and I went and told my children, let's go, why should we would stay here alone? What about the crooks or if there was a confrontation," recalls Mrs. López, who makes mezcal in one of the two rooms of her house made of sheets of metal and wood.

For three years, the Municipality of Chilapa has been land without law. The dispute is over the cultivation and transport of the poppy crop and its derivatives between two criminal groups, "Los Ardillos" and "Los Rojos", and has claimed the lives of more than 500 people, according to the organization Siempre Vivos, and a similar number have disappeared.

Its director, Jose Diaz Navarro, says that crimes are increasingly bloody. "We talk about people who are dismembered, they cut them up and are left in bags. Most of the time they are men or women who did not want to work for one or another criminal organization."

Diaz joined the group in the wake of the disappearance of his brothers Hugo and Alejandrino in November 2014. Since then he has documented the disappearance of people in the municipality, week after week. " In just these four days I was informed that we already have five people missing in Chilapa and another in Zitlala, but the authorities do nothing, the criminals continue to control everything and they are free, even the plaza boss," he explains.

"Los Ardillos" have managed to take control of Zitlala, Ahuacuotzingo, Atlixtlat, José Joaquín de Herrera, Quechultenango, Mochitlan, Tixtla, Apango and the municipal head of Chilapa. All communities before were in the possession of "Los Rojos". The advance of "Los Ardillos'' is attributed, according to Diaz, to the protection of that was enjoyed during the last tenure of the local Government officials.

Bernando Ortega, Celso's brother, "La Ardilla", founder of the organization, was leader of the PRD bench in the local Congress. He has also been mayor of Quechultenango.

"The Ardillos" have taken over the economy, they also extort money from the city council, merchants and take over businesses, that's why it's organized crime," José explains: "And if someone refuses to collaborate with them, they threaten them. The good ones or the bad ones ". People from other communities have the same thing, but more with "Los Rojos". Then there are the people in the middle.

Hence, many of the inhabitants of these communities live with permanent threats and, as in Ahuihuiyuco and Tepozcuautla, leave their homes. Senora Gabriela has lost three of her relatives. Two years ago, her uncle and her cousin were kidnapped. "Since November 2015 I do not know about them, they took them because they did not want to work with the bad guys," she says in anonymity.

Last May, Gabriela's brother disappeared. "The next day we went, we left town, with what we had, only with important documents. The fear, the deaths, the disappearances, when nothing happens in the immediate family, because it has more value, but relatives began to disappear."

Gabriela, her mother, two of her brothers, her husband and her two children, one and five years old, paid 2,000 Pesos to rent a house in Chilapa for three nights. "I had no bathroom facilities nor light/electricity and with 2,000 Pesos we could eat two weeks, my two children and I," says Gabriela.

Impossible economically, Gabriela and her family took refuge with relatives in another state of the Mexican Republic. A week ago they decided to return to Tepozcuautla. The money was gone. She and her family live in a modest house, too. Like Margarita, her family harvests maize, beans, tomatoes and chile. When they got home, their dining room table was gone and some plastic chairs they had paid for.

They were left without part of their meager rural patrimony: their pig and their hens had disappeared.

Manuel Olivares, director of the José María Morelos and Pavón Human Rights Center, explains that as Gabriela, the 580 families who left these communities did so in a disorganized way, the first 300 in May and the rest after the public threats, between June 7 -10th.

"Those who are returning, do so in total anonymity and with much fear."

On June 14, Guerrero Coordination Group spokesman Roberto Heredia reportedly claimed that the displaced had returned to these communities and were enjoying all the security guarantees by sending military and state police to these regions. However, the census of the Centro José María Morelos y Pavón showed that not 50 percent of the villagers have returned to their homes.

"The people who have returned have not done so in safety because there are no health services, there are no services at all, businesses are closed, there is nothing and while people are afraid there are signs that there is a latent risk even with the presence of the Army," says Olivares.

The health centers are closed in both communities and the school cycle started with few teachers. Those displaced by fear, some of them, are beginning to return. They just ask for protection.

38 comments:

This is why I have been saying that the government statistics for the missing or dead are way under estimated. So Many towns like this that never have the people reported killed or disappeared. Mexico has to be in reality if the truth be known one of the largest killing fields in the world. I live here in Mexico, and people I know that have been killed, have not become part of the totals. It is all dine on purpose by the government and because they just do not care.

Gracias and thank you for your on the ground observations and reporting. You are the best resource we have to get the reality out. Stay safe and take good care of yourself and your family.Cuidar su mismo y su familia.

Your words are so true. It makes me so sad to see the gradual destruction of your wonderful nation. The insane drug laws of the USA have allowed a few to make vast amounts of money at the expense of the majority of the great people of Mexico. I wish there was a solution to the madness that is destroying the lives of your people. The tragedy is that as you say the people in charge just dont care. I wish you well and hope that at some point the world will wake up and do something to bring stability and safety to the people of your great nation. You have a friend here in the UK, God bless you.

Is it better to leave your home with no money or place to go or form an autodefensas group. At least with forming an autodefensas you have a small chance to claim your land and homes back. Maybe combine it with social media exposure to show how corrupt many are to allow criminal thugs to run the place

Back a few years ago when I was working in that part of the world I overheard in the distance a firefight between the autodefensas and the gentes malo. Heavy machine gun fire and an occasional 22 single shot or even a shotgun blast. Lasted less than 10 minutes. Most of those villages have 1/4 or 1/3 of the houses padlocked and the family has fled. Either because they were aligned with the group pushed out, or they tried to be neutral. Si, esta zona de fosas. Giving the village residents 24 hours to leave is a standard tactic. True, Mexico is in deep trouble, how many more will have to die?????

dealers' choice, made easier when the dealers hold all the winning cards and the sequence is up to them, a winning choice, who has all the military, state and federal police in guerrero? A: the government, the federal government

Look what happened to Dr. Mireles and Hipolito Mora. The Purepechas of Cheran are the only ones who have succeeded against La Familia. The Gov't seems to discourage this by favoring the Cartels.https://sexta-azcapotzalco.blogspot.com/2016/08/documental-cheran-el-pueblo-purepecha.html?m=0

Where do these townsfolk get their assault weapons and fatigues? What type(s) of commerce would they have to keep themselves sustained and block the influence of narco gangs? To operate sufficiently in doing so, I would imagine they had some training as well, but from whom?

Cannot answer that specifically, but given the fact that the country is awash in arms they cannot be too hard to come by. Also everyone is running around in camo, fatigues, etc, it doesn't take much imagination to make up something to look like uniforms. Everyone wearing the same kind of pants and same color shirts for example. La Gente are very industrious. Mexico also has mandatory military service not to mention rural folks especially are well versed in hunting.

real auto-defemses wear no "fatigues", paramilitary units dependent on government sponsored by the strange generosity of government and their compadre cartels do.comandente Marcos has been mysteriouysly funded since carlos and raul salinas de gortari decided their brother in law jose francisco ruiz massieu was not good anymore, some say because carlos had been his "secret not so secret" lover as many members of the mexican "COFRADIA DE LA MANO CAIDA" BELONG, TO GET AHEAD IN POLITICS, according to Rafael Loret De Mola

Chivis or Otis. Not to distract about the story here but have you guys seen the article on the Insight crime website that talks about the end of the CDS cartel? Regardless of what nutthugers here say that website really puts somethings in perspective and let's people see the reasoning behind this claim. You guys should check it out.

5:07 did you know, no matter what the nuthuggers say, there was an article that said Mencho is about to be captured, that he left the cities already and is hiding in the Sierras cause he's about to fall. And is feeling the pressure. Debate has the article

does anybody see a pattern?Nayarit, Un Fiscal de Miedo/ MIleniothe comision de la verdad, Unmasking the governor of nayarit and the tactics used by his evil "fiscal", kidnapping everybody and doing them the favour of not killing them or their children, parents or wives in exchange for their properties, but their governor claims it is all falsehoods, because he made his millions 'honestly'...6:47 i think the trompetass has a lot more to worry about than el mini-lic, Special Counsel Robert MUeller is working hard to unmask all his dirty deeds and dirty ties to all manner of russian oligarchs and bankers, and wolrd size criminals, drug traffickers, war lords and money launderers, just pardoned his parna arpaio who used to persecute latinos who did not have 'password' for many many years, of course those with password went all the way to New York and New Jersey, lands of the russian mobsters since the days of JOE BANANAS AND SAMMY THE BULL GRAB ANOS, THE GUY THAT RATTED JOHNNY "THE TEFLON DON" GOTTI FOR RUDI GIULIANNI AFTER TOOK CARE OF FAT TONY SALERNO TOO, THEY OWNED THE TROMPASS DEBT TO THEIR MOB, RUDI GIULIANNI WENT ON TO BECOME A PRIZE WINNING LAW PARTNER OF A FIRM IN RUSSIA SOON AFTER... A FAVOURITE OF BLADDERMIR PUTIN.

6:15 YOU SAID THE TRUTH, "LOS NARCOS NO VALEN"it is all the state government's paramilitary amnd state FUERZAS DELICTIVAS doing the federal government's bidding, the federal police and military are there just to support them against autodefensas and neighbors armed with bb guns and slingshots.

El Pollo went down in Michoacán a few weeks ago. The Cell Leader of CJNG, down there. But they didn't write that article either. They don't like to write those articles because they don't bring as much traffic as a Sinaloa article

@6:50 AMThat is just blatantly NOT true, period.How many times do we have to remind you that we are a collective of volunteers with jobs,families, school, responsibilities, and complicated lives like everyone else? etcetcetc.

6:50 el pollo tatemado was reported on BB almost immediately, his buddy 'el comandante cinco' is on a photo showing el pollo's inseparable gold plated gun, i even accused comandante cinco of murdering his friend and burning his ass after getting him drunk after a night of celebration, probably gave him a mickey or extasy to rape him first for betraying his former partners los CT and La Familia before becoming a H3...

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